Round 2, Here. We. Go.

[Chicagoreef2016]

Alright folks,

Bought a standard 60 Marineland rimless cube 2 years ago and have had a blast. Learned a ton, had some successes and more failures frankly, which only increased the interest in the hobby. Wanted to go with a bigger tank, one that I would see a lot each day and the floors would still be able to hold. Love the Red Sea tanks, but after two years of tinkering I wanted something I could customize. So I went with SC after a lot of research and working with Steve over there. He was able to do exactly what I wanted for a reasonable price.

So, the tank is a SC 127ish gallons at 5x2x20.5"; I didn't want another 24" high tank, which makes it hard for me to reach the sand bed, and wanted a 5 foot long tank. I built my own stand and made it extra large, so I could easily put everything in there and not be cramped. Which now in hindsight makes it harder to reach the sanded.....but you live and learn. I am going to bring everything over from my 60 cube (not sand), and am currently cycling BRS reefsaver rock in a brute right now. I plan on hopefully working my way to primarily SPS over the next year, once everything settles in. But those have been my biggest challenge so we shall see how it goes.

Here are some pics of the stand being built. I take pretty much all of my design ideas from other builds or pictures or people on this forum. She won't win any awards, but I am pleased with how it turned out.

[Chicagoreef2016]

SC tanks on the larger size are eurobraced. I was able to get Steve to remove the back eurobrace so as not to lower the water level at all when factoring in the overflow. I went with the Synergy Ghost Overflow, 16". I also went with the obvious choice of scarlet and grey for all of the Buckeye fans out there for my plumbing. Used PVC for everything, except a short segment of soft tubing coming from the return pump to reduce noise.

[z3speed4me]

Trigger triton style sump I assume?

[Chicagoreef2016]

Originally Posted by z3speed4me

Trigger triton style sump I assume?

Yes sir. I wanted the option to go Triton (or similar) at some point. Everything is set up, and I just moved all of the livestock and rock from the existing tank into the new tank. Still need to fix the aquascape as I just plopped the rocks in there, but so far all of the corals/lifestock survived the change.

I will add an updated pic of the sump with all of the equipment in there, I am not a wire hiding master like some people on this forum, but I am happy. So far the sump works great, the Vertex skimmer is a beast and way easier to dial in than my old reef octopus Classic 110INT. Love the huge 20 gallon refugium, can't wait to start tinkering with that.

Any good light recommendations for a sump? I have a 6500k CFL bulb hanging above the refugium, don't really want to spend $200 on a light fixture for my sump.

Also need to figure out a good ATO reservoir; this is going through about a half gallon a day or more and a 20 gallon brute garbage can doesn't look to nice sitting next to the tank.

[z3speed4me]

Never really understood part of the Triton idea... Doesn't a fuge before the skimmer, skim out pods???
No socks are used in this system, fuge is supposed to do all that work right? Has to definitely lead to a messy sump floor I would assume.

I have used cheap amazon plant grow lights with really great success.... then I went too low on my nitrate / phosphate levels and chaeto just melted. Now I've kicked up nutrients again and most recently am using a Kessil H80 which is doing a pretty good job.

[Chicagoreef2016]

Originally Posted by z3speed4me

Never really understood part of the Triton idea... Doesn't a fuge before the skimmer, skim out pods???
No socks are used in this system, fuge is supposed to do all that work right? Has to definitely lead to a messy sump floor I would assume.

I have used cheap amazon plant grow lights with really great success.... then I went too low on my nitrate / phosphate levels and chaeto just melted. Now I've kicked up nutrients again and most recently am using a Kessil H80 which is doing a pretty good job.

Yes it leads to a messy refugium floor. I am a little nervous about that, especially as this tank breaks in with the combination of old live rock and new cycled rock I put in the display. But ultimately I felt ok with it as I was messaging with Randy-Farley Holmes about it, and he had a thick layer of sludge in the bottom of his refugium from detritus build up over time. I will see if I ultimately vacuum it out periodically, or let is build up.

And yes some pods will probably get skimmed right out of existence. Never thought about that flow portion actually, but too late now.

I have to do some more research on what else I should be growing in my refugium, right now I just have chaeto. I think triton calls for different types of plants. Not exactly sure on whether I will go triton, I just want the option down the road, and basically a big refugium to soak up phosphates, grow pods, etc.